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The New Frontier in Oxytocin Physiology: The Oxytonic Contraction
Oxytocin (Oxt) is a nine amino acid peptide important in energy regulation and is essential to stress-related disorders. Specifically, low Oxt levels are associated with obesity in human subjects and diet-induced or genetically modified animal models. The striking evidence that Oxt is linked to ener...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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MDPI
2020
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7404128/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32708109 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21145144 |
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author | Camerino, Claudia |
author_facet | Camerino, Claudia |
author_sort | Camerino, Claudia |
collection | PubMed |
description | Oxytocin (Oxt) is a nine amino acid peptide important in energy regulation and is essential to stress-related disorders. Specifically, low Oxt levels are associated with obesity in human subjects and diet-induced or genetically modified animal models. The striking evidence that Oxt is linked to energy regulation is that Oxt- and oxytocin receptor (Oxtr)-deficient mice show a phenotype characterized by late onset obesity. Oxt−/− or Oxtr−/− develop weight gain without increasing food intake, suggesting that a lack of Oxt reduce metabolic rate. Oxt is differentially expressed in skeletal muscle exerting a protective effect toward the slow-twitch muscle after cold stress challenge in mice. We hypothesized that Oxt potentiates the slow-twitch muscle as it does with the uterus, triggering “the oxytonic contractions”. Physiologically, this is important to augment muscle strength in fight/flight response and is consistent with the augmented energetic need at time of labor and for the protection of the offspring when Oxt secretion spikes. The normophagic obesity of Oxt−/− or Oxtr−/− mice could have been caused by decreased skeletal muscle tonicity which drove the metabolic phenotype. In this review, we summarized our findings together with the recent literature on this fascinating subjects in a “new oxytonic perspective” over the physicology of Oxt. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7404128 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-74041282020-08-11 The New Frontier in Oxytocin Physiology: The Oxytonic Contraction Camerino, Claudia Int J Mol Sci Review Oxytocin (Oxt) is a nine amino acid peptide important in energy regulation and is essential to stress-related disorders. Specifically, low Oxt levels are associated with obesity in human subjects and diet-induced or genetically modified animal models. The striking evidence that Oxt is linked to energy regulation is that Oxt- and oxytocin receptor (Oxtr)-deficient mice show a phenotype characterized by late onset obesity. Oxt−/− or Oxtr−/− develop weight gain without increasing food intake, suggesting that a lack of Oxt reduce metabolic rate. Oxt is differentially expressed in skeletal muscle exerting a protective effect toward the slow-twitch muscle after cold stress challenge in mice. We hypothesized that Oxt potentiates the slow-twitch muscle as it does with the uterus, triggering “the oxytonic contractions”. Physiologically, this is important to augment muscle strength in fight/flight response and is consistent with the augmented energetic need at time of labor and for the protection of the offspring when Oxt secretion spikes. The normophagic obesity of Oxt−/− or Oxtr−/− mice could have been caused by decreased skeletal muscle tonicity which drove the metabolic phenotype. In this review, we summarized our findings together with the recent literature on this fascinating subjects in a “new oxytonic perspective” over the physicology of Oxt. MDPI 2020-07-21 /pmc/articles/PMC7404128/ /pubmed/32708109 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21145144 Text en © 2020 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Camerino, Claudia The New Frontier in Oxytocin Physiology: The Oxytonic Contraction |
title | The New Frontier in Oxytocin Physiology: The Oxytonic Contraction |
title_full | The New Frontier in Oxytocin Physiology: The Oxytonic Contraction |
title_fullStr | The New Frontier in Oxytocin Physiology: The Oxytonic Contraction |
title_full_unstemmed | The New Frontier in Oxytocin Physiology: The Oxytonic Contraction |
title_short | The New Frontier in Oxytocin Physiology: The Oxytonic Contraction |
title_sort | new frontier in oxytocin physiology: the oxytonic contraction |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7404128/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32708109 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21145144 |
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